Lee’s hemoglobin has always run low. Before his surgery he was given a unit of packed red cells, just to beef him up, so I was not surprised on Wednesday afternoon when I got a call that they were going to take him to JFK hospital to give him a transfusion. This was around 3 o’clock. He called as well and let me know. I knew that it would take about 3 hours for the transfusion. Around 7:30 I called the nursing home to see if he was back yet. No. I called JFK’s infusion room and they did not answer the phone, but said to leave a message and someone would get back to me. That never happened. Around 9 o’clock I called the main number and was told he was in the ER. Now panic was beginning to creep in. I got the ER and finally was connected to Lee who had been lying on a gurney for six plus hours. The transfusion never happened as they determined he did not need it. He was waiting for an ambulance to take him back to the nursing home. He was extremely uncomfortable, his neck was killing him and his back was sore. Gurneys are not designed for comfort, just transportation. He also (finally) was able to get something to drink. I was really annoyed. It’s not a good idea for a patient to be starving and dehydrated–not the road back to health.
The bottom line was he did not get back to his bed until 2 AM.
Why it took so long for him to get an ambulance is a mystery.
He is still trying to catch up on his sleep.
Otherwise, he is doing well, getting PT every day.
I truly hope he can come home soon.
Thank you all for your prayers.
God bless everybody
Patty
Unexplained events and reasons for those issues happen in all hospitals. Thank the Lord no real harm was done. Yes, we pray he can go home soon.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” Psalm 46: 1-2
Amen.
I had a taste of it from a similar perspective last year, helping my dad with his various surgeries. It’s frustrating beyond measure and a true test of faith and patience. Continuing to pray for you both.
The hospital system is like this everywhere. Just awful!
I don’t want any more experience of it.
A fiasco, indeed.
Oh, Patty, how awful. Some hospitals are worse than others. When I started having pneumonia this past February, I finally had to call the squad b/c my fever was so high that I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without starting to pass out. The squad took me to the ER at the nearby hospital, and I never even made it into the ER proper. The Triage staff did some tests and then stuck me in a small wheelchair along with a couple of dozen (yes, a couple of DOZEN) other people (mostly in wheelchairs) in the main lobby b/c there weren’t any rooms available in the ER. I sat there for 5 hours, until my back (bent spine from old AF injury) was almost unbearably painful, when I finally managed to get hold of someone to check me out and call a taxi for me so I could go home. No one ever came around to ask whether any of us needed fluids or a trip to the latrine or any other kind of help. One woman in a wheelchair and with an oxygen tank almost suffocated when her O2 tank ran out. Luckily, she had a voice like a bullhorn and managed to yell for help all the way across the lobby to the admissions desk.
Anyway, I went home and managed to crawl around my apartment for the next two days until the fever broke to a mere 100F. The hospital ordeal had been on Monday. By Friday, fever was in the 99s, and a friend took me to the local Minute Clinic, where the NP said my oxygen level was too low to send me home, even with antibiotics, and I had to go to the ER. I said no, told her what had happened, and said I’d rather die in the street than go through that again. Finally, I agreed to let my friend take me to a different hospital, and there they were much more helpful. I was into the ER proper within a half-hour, and from there hospitalized for 4 days and sent home with an oxygen machine for a week. The nurses and aides at that hospital were also helpful and cheerful and very very good to me. (Of course, the food was execrable, but I’d been unable to eat for over a week by then anyway.)
So a lot depends on the facility, I guess. I’m so sorry Lee has wound up with all the worst ones. I’ve been praying for him and for you almost constantly.
Oh, and by the way, now I’m in the middle of a computer crisis. My old computer died last Friday, I finally got my new computer set up yesterday … and now Windows 11 won’t recognize my printer driver — or even find it — that I downloaded from the manufacturer. So now I have no printer. Other than that, life goes smoothly. (sarcasm)
Give my love to Lee next time you talk to him. I’m so tangled up in malfunctioning electronics right now that I don’t know when I’ll ever catch up.
As my Grandma used to say, “Ach du lieber…”
What a nightmare of a story. All this over a blood transfusion that never happened. Sorry to put this in political terms but this is all because of Obamacare (you know, just pass it and then you will find out what is in it). All through America’s history doctors had their own practice, but now everything and everyone is underneath authority; and protocol is one size fits all. May Lee be home soon and escape the medical trap that has become America’s healthcare system.
Did I mention that they wanted to do the whole damned thing all over again, two days later? The nursing home directed wouldn’t let them.